


A Brand New World

by Rellanka



Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [24]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Crack, M/M, Surprise Cloud/Someone pairing at the end, Video Game AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23976307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Rellanka
Summary: Cloud is a normal man who sometimes doubles as a video game protagonist because of powers he wished he didn’t have. Problem is, while he’s left many of those world’s behind after accomplishing their quests… some of the people in those world’s aren’t so capable of letting go.
Relationships: Angeal Hewley/Cloud Strife, Genesis Rhapsodos/Cloud Strife, Sephiroth/Cloud Strife, Zack Fair/Angeal Hewley/Genesis Rhapsodos/Sephiroth/Cloud Strife, Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697269
Comments: 13
Kudos: 300





	A Brand New World

“No, no, no, no. You cannot be here. I helped you all precisely so that you **wouldn’t** return!” Cloud glared fiercely at the group of men standing in his living room, cursing his life, and specifically his powers, for what was probably the nth time. (Cloud didn’t really know the exact number. He’d done it so often that it had possibly crossed over into a seven digit figure long ago.)

The men all stared back with varying levels of haughty arrogance and entitlement, Genesis actually snorting when he met Cloud’s eyes. 

It was no surprise. Of all of them, bar Sephiroth who was possessive in a darker way, Genesis had probably been the most demanding of Cloud’s time and help when he had suddenly appeared in Cloud’s apartment to drag him back to Genesis’ world. 

And when the quest had been done and the villain defeated, Genesis had ordered rather than asked Cloud to stay in that world. To stay with him. 

Cloud would never forget the look on Genesis’s face when Cloud’s powers had abruptly decided that that was the time to transport him back home, or the way the man had looked so devastated when he reached out to grab Cloud only for Cloud to slip right through his fingers as light and air. It’d haunted Cloud for months afterward, and even then he’d only moved past the loss because he’d known he had to. But that still didn’t make the man’s current behavior alright. 

“You left my side once, dearest. Tell me, did you really think that I would be so weak as to accept things as they were and not look for a way to get you back? The only thing that should surprise you is that I had to work with your other… dalliances to find a way back to your side. I think you probably know that that is something I would have avoided had I been able to. Unfortunately, they were proven to be necessary.” The man proclaimed grandly, waving a careless hand at the rest of the room. 

“Thanks, Genesis.” Angeal said dryly. 

Going from the way that the offense in the man’s tone was almost playful, Cloud guessed that he was right when he’d thought that the two of them would have likely been friends had they not existed in separate worlds. 

It was good to be proven right. 

Not so good to be proven right in quite this way, though. 

Cloud sighed deeply and turned away from Genesis to turn his attention to Zack, who was definitely the most bearable of all the men in the room. Except for times like now, when he was either purposely making Cloud feel guilty with the heartbreakingly sad expression on his face, or he was truly unaware of what expression he was making. 

With Zack, it honestly could go either way. 

The man was very sweet, but also extremely manipulative at times if he thought it wouldn’t hurt anyone. 

And when he noticed Cloud looking at him, he started looking even sadder. 

“Look, I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, but I would have figured that you out of everyone would have realized how bad an idea coming here was, Zack. Weren’t you extremely protective of your world? Don’t you realize how bad an idea coming back into this one was? Aren’t you worried about what’s going on back where you came from?” Cloud asked, almost tempted to go over to the man and hold his hand while he said it. Damn, if Zack didn’t know exactly how to get him better than pretty much anyone else. 

Zack blew out a breath of air in a deep sigh, “I mean, yeah, of course I’m worried about what’s going on back home. But Aerith’s looking after everything, and I doubt I could do a better job at taking care of our world than **her**. So when this guy popped up and started asking if I knew you and saying he had a way to get back to you-“ Zack jerked a thumb Genesis’s way, “Aerith told me to go. And I did, because… I really, really missed you, Cloud. A lot. More than I could ever say, probably.” 

Cloud’s heart twisted in his chest, and the urge to kiss Zack or hug him or even just put a hand on his shoulder was overwhelming. Anything to show how much Cloud had missed him, too.

But he sternly held himself back.

Cloud’s powers, odd and bizarre as they were, dragged men like Zack from their odd, game-like realities into Cloud’s, and the moment Cloud touched them, he would inevitably be drawn into their world until whatever quest their reality was facing was won. 

He couldn’t risk touching them now, not with whatever they’d done to drag themselves all back to Cloud’s world. 

He’d only encountered a situation like this once before, and that, well. 

Cloud was still trying to figure out what all of the consequences were going to result from that first example. And while touch hadn’t sparked a return to that world, he wasn’t sure it wouldn’t in this case.

But still, while he couldn’t touch, he could at least use words to reassure. “Zack, you know that I would never **not** want to see you. I missed you, too. So much. But, I-“ 

Or he could try to reassure Zack, until someone decided to interrupt. 

Which is exactly what Sephiroth did, sneaking up on Cloud’s blind spot while he was focused on Zack and using a strong hand to turn Cloud around until he was pressed tightly to Sephiroth’s form, snarling up at the man as he used a gloved hand to force Cloud’s face up until his eyes to meet Sephiroth’s own. 

“So eager to see us gone, Cloud? No matter. Whatever your personal feelings are on my being here, we’ve come under our own power, with pieces torn from our worlds and brought with us so that we have the same abilities here as we do where we come from. So, dear puppet, if you would like for us to leave-“ Sephiroth’s hair curtained his and Cloud’s faces slightly as he leaned close enough to breath the last against Cloud’s lips, his hand trailing casually down Cloud’s side to land intimately on his hip, “Than **make us** leave.” 

Cloud glared back at Sephiroth, refusing to be cowed by the obvious threat. Lust, bloodlust, possession, a fucked-up sort of love, all of those and more battled for dominance in the green of Sephiroth’s cat-like gaze. If he’d never met the man before, he would have wondered if the magic that he’d used to bring himself here had done something to him. As it was, Cloud had spent more time in Sephiroth’s world than he had in any other, and that was a very familiar look for the man. 

(To this day, Cloud still wasn’t sure that his powers hadn’t fucked up and he hadn’t been helping the villain rather than the hero when it came to Sephiroth.)

The idea that the man had managed to bring his truly terrifying powers to this world, which was nowhere near equipped enough to deal with someone like him, was more than a little terrifying. 

Angeal, probably the man that Cloud could be surest of for **being** the hero of his game interrupted the two of them, reaching out and tearing Sephiroth from Cloud in a deft display of strength that proved Sephiroth was telling at least a little bit of the truth about their abilities traveling over. If Cloud and Sephiroth hadn’t been dragged back to Sephiroth’s world with that touch… Fuck, they really might be here to stay, mightn’t they? With all of their abilities, to boot. 

And if Cloud had had any doubt about that anymore, the fact that Sephiroth was soon having to twist out of Angeal’s grip to dodge a fireball coming from Genesis’s direction removed all doubt. 

Cloud froze, watching with not a little dread as his apartment exploded into chaos, flashing swords and magic destroying walls, furniture and electronics alike. 

In a distant, absent manner, Cloud hoped that their money had traveled with them in a similar way, because if none of them payed him back for the doubtlessly massive repair bill, he was going to kill them all _himself_. 

Still, though. 

“If you guys had to have each other’s help to make it back here,” Cloud said in a dazed, unnaturally calm as his apartment became so much rubble right before his eyes, “How come Vincent made it here all on his own **months** ago?”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, the surprise pairing was Vincent/Cloud. Part of Cloud's role as a protagonist in those games _was_ to become romantically involved with the hero(es). But Cloud was upfront about his other lovers from the offset, so each had known about that. (And Cloud could have gone with the non-romantic route, but he fell in love with each of them during their quests, so...) 
> 
> Now they all get to be with Cloud at the same time! How wonderful for Cloud! (And I mean that a little sadistically and a little genuinely, lol.) 
> 
> (Also, this is more v-shaped poly, but you guys can visualize it becoming complete poly at some point in the future if you wish! I'm pretty sure that Cloud would always be their center, though.)
> 
> Hope to have some free time tomorrow to update my Tumblr and maybe be a little more active in fandom! 'Cause I'm pretty tired tonight. See you tomorrow, guys!


End file.
